THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506090570
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
A corrections employee was caught Wednesday trying to carry a semiautomatic handgun into a medium-security prison near Culpeper, authorities disclosed Thursday.
Ward Wilkerson Jr., a librarian for the Department of Correctional Education, was arrested after a routine search in the lobby of the Coffeewood Correctional Center.
Corrections director Ron Angelone said Wilkerson approached the checkpoint carrying a stack of newspapers, and corrections officers noticed him acting ``in a suspicious manner.''
An unloaded .38-caliber handgun was found in a box beneath the newspapers.
The box appeared to be the original container in which the gun was sold, Angelone said.
Allen administration officials declined to comment on whether the episode gives credence to the theory that a gun found last month in a typewriter used by death-row inmate Willie Lloyd Turner could have been smuggled into Greensville Correctional Center by a guard.
``It's not proper for us to go down that road yet,'' Public Safety Secretary Jerry W. Kilgore said.
The death row gun scandal erupted a few hours after the May 25 execution of Turner at Greensville.
His lawyer removed Turner's possessions from the prison and later discovered a loaded revolver and 12 extra bullets hidden in Turner's electric typewriter.
The initial reaction of Angelone and Gov. George F. Allen was that the gun could have been planted by Turner's attorney as part of an ``elaborate hoax.''
After a 36-hour investigation, Angelone exonerated his department.
Allen reopened the matter last week - calling in the state police - when it became apparent that the brief internal probe had left too many questions unanswered.
On Thursday, members of two General Assembly public safety subcommittees sought answers during a routine budget work session.
Kilgore had little to tell them, explaining that he wanted to wait for the state police to complete their investigation.
``It would send signals to the witnesses who are being investigated,'' he said.
Kilgore also would not say whether the Allen administration still suspects involvement by Walter Walvick, an anti-trust lawyer from Washington who represented Turner.
``It could have been a hoax; it could be anything,'' Kilgore said. ``We haven't ruled out any possibility at this point.''
``Are you still looking at him (Walvick) as a possibility?'' pressed Del. Robert B. Ball, D-Richmond.
``I really don't want to answer that because I can see the headlines tomorrow,'' Kilgore replied.
Walvick, who has expressed outrage that the administration would suggest he planted the gun, declined comment.
Allen administration officials were quick to reject any ties beteen the latest prison gun incident and the Turner case.
``You don't put any two situations together,'' Angelone said.
He tried to put the best face on the latest incident, saying the arrest of the corrections employee demonstrated how difficult it would be to smuggle a firearm into a correctional facility.
``The fact that the weapon was found at the initial checkpoint in the lobby points to the professionalism of our corrections officers,'' he said.
Wilkerson, charged with attempting to enter a prison with a firearm, has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the criminal charge.
In a brief telephone interview, Wilkerson said the whole thing was a misunderstanding.
``It's just a monumental screw-up that I hope will be cleared up in the courts,'' he said.
Wilkerson referred any questions to his lawyer, who could not be reached for comment.
The librarian was hired shortly after Coffeewood Correctional Center opened last October.
His father said that Wilkerson holds a master's degree in library science but had been selling cars because he could not find work in his field.
``I don't know what's going on,'' the elder Wilkerson said. ``It's got me down, whatever it is. I just know he did nothing wrong.''
KEYWORDS: HANDGUNS PRISONS ARREST by CNB